Designation of land in district plans

A designation is an area of land identified in a district plan that is intended to be used for a particular work or project (such as a road or school) by a requiring authority.

This page outlines the stages of the designation process and how you can be involved.

Stages of the designation process and how you can be involved

The designation process can be broken into five stages.

Stage one: pre-lodgement

You may be approached by a requiring authority before it lodges its notice of requirement for a designation.

Consultation is not a mandatory requirement under the Resource Management Act (RMA), but it can be useful for a requiring authority to talk to interested or potentially affected parties about the proposed works and designation.

Stage two: the requiring authority lodges the notice of requirement

Once the notice of requirement has been lodged, the council makes a decision to process it on either a non-notified, limited notified, or publicly notified basis depending on its level of adverse effects. If the council decides to publicly notify the notice of requirement, it will be published on the Internet and in a local newspaper. Some people may also be notified directly. Anybody can make a submission on a notice of requirement that is publicly notified. If it is limited notified, only those people notified can make a submission. The submission process is the same as the process for making a submission on a resource consent.

Stage four: the council makes a recommendation

The council considers all the submissions it received, together with the notice of requirement, and then makes a recommendation to the requiring authority that either the designation be approved (with or without changes and conditions) or withdrawn.

The requiring authority then decides whether to confirm the designation (with or without changes and conditions) or withdraw it. Most designations that are confirmed are subject to conditions.

Stage five: the council servers notice of the decision

The council notifies the decision of the requiring authority to all submitters and directly affected landowners/occupiers.

If you made a submission and are not satisfied with the decision or the conditions, you can appeal to the Environment Court. The council also has the ability to appeal to the Environment Court.